The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-09-16
IN OLD TUOLUMNE.
A DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION TWEEN
TY-slx YEARS AGO.
Rard-Fisted Miners Who Delighted in
Gathering of the Boys Men
with stomachs Injured to
Bacon and FIapjacks.

But not so heated is the physical atmos.
phere of Sonora. TuOlumne county, as
the mental The mental? Ay. the moral,
the immoral the intellectual. Why?
IT'S the day of the Democratic conven-
ton, met now twenty -six long years
agOne-the convention ratifying the nom
nations of Breckenridge and ane for
president and vice president of these then
United States, but more especially and
vitality to nominate good sound / emo
Gratis to certain county offices-offices Of
importance, because then offices of great
profit
They are pouring in from Pine Log
from Columbia. Springfield, Shaw's Flat
the mountains. JimtOwn. MOntezuma.
Chinese camp Don Iedro's, / ed noun
tain. Hawkins Bar. Marshs lat,
Rattlesnake, Jacksonville. Stevens Bar,
Oak Flat, First Garrote, secord
Garrote, the Green springs and
Moccasins creek They poured in
last night They poured much down
last night. They came clad in long linen
busters on raw boned mustangs, and
some on foot They gre men of mark IN
their respective precincts, men of intiu-
ence, strong men, aud fighting men.
They are men who, day after day, stand
knee deep in the mud of the golden allu-
vial as it is being sliced away. or waist
deep in the river creek stream, laying
walls and wing dams.
They have the dinero in their pockets.
They have the ore in their buckskins
They have left their ranches. their ranch
eros, their casas, their ramadas. They
bestride caballos-not burros. They are
not burros Call one of them a burrO,
and he'd blow off the top of your cabeza
They disdain the English of their eastern
homes They speak the English trimmed
with Spanish-with Spanish learned from
sOnors-and senoritas-of course
Most of them are "heeled They carry
stern chasers-under their linen busters.
They are ready for war They are on the
warpath. The war paint is on their faces
The war whisky is in their stOmachs.
They love war They do not exactly
pray to-day for a shooting scrape But if
one comes along they are on hand to en-
Joy it
They are men with hands hard and
horny, with stOmachs indurated to bull
beef, bacon and fiapjacks. They live in log
cabins of their own building-lOgs now
cid and rotten-logs oft full of creeping,
crawling things-centipedes and such;
the tarantula burrows near their
doors; the horned toad frisks near
by in the June sunshine; the
Rattlesnake becomes sociable and crawls
down to pay them visits. About
the noses of these men at
meal times buzz the yellow jackets
unlimited guests-whose b te is worse
than their bark-lovers of sweet cOndi-
ments. apple sauce and molasses, adjunCts
to the meals of these hard and horny
handed men of the southern mines.
Near their doors also is thickly popu-
lated tree city of red ants-the red
ant of California, the biting ant-a dis
tlnctly smelling, and. when crushed, not
pleasant smelling ant-an ant which can
never be driven out of its place of settle
menE These Democrats-these men of
Don PedrO's and Hawkins Ear and Alge-
rine and Poverty Hill-have ofttimes
fought hard and perseveringly against
these red ants-have dug up their holes,
have poured kettle on kettle of boiling
water into their city-have parboiled,
boiled and otherwise destroyed, them by
the thousand unto the tens of thousands,
yet ultimately to NO purpose; there is of
them no cessation.
These are imtown Democrats, Quartz
crushers, pocket hunters, ROSTERS of
Whisky Hill-burrowers from Table
mountain-travelers of dead river beds,
delving in gravel eternity bur ed. brin ing
forth to light bones of the megatherium
and icthyosaurus-poor beasts who. ons
ago, never knew their scientific names.
This gray-shirted, hum ble-panted. wi d.
eyed man is Allen Oliver. ever sanguine
of untold treasure in Table mountain,
ever sanguine, also, as Democrat. here
be the luton brothers of irginia-td
dlers, fighters. hOrsemen and N ners
good fellows, large story -tellers; ready to sit
up all night; spirits always at high wafer.
though coin in the purse has touched the
lowest water mark These are the
rnen of "the river the TuOumne
of Jacksonville Stevens bar + ed noun
tain, Hawkins, Swett's and Indian bars;
men of stout hearts and broad feet, sand
bar diggers, red-dirt singers; wing dam
siCe-dam, head wall builders; roch- bank
CreVicers: packers of their own flour aud
bacon for miles over rocky trails from the
bar store to their cabins; hermits secluded
In deep gulch recesses; ugly men when
water Is backed" in upon them from the
river claim below; men worth, cabin
blankets and. tools included, say 800;
men never discouraged because the bed
OF the river did not pay this year, but
resolved to tackle the same old claim the
next-the same old claim which for
wears, from MAY to November, has
claimed their muscle, their money their
time their credit-and never did pay
and never will
Hard baked and red is the soil of the
hillsides on which stand their cabins.
Muddy and red the ditch water flowing
past their doors. Thick, viscid and glut-
inous the slum deposit made monthly in
their reservoirs Toilsome the job of a
Saturday afternoon cleaning it out. A
smell of rubber pervades their humble
homes-rubber garments, rubber toots,
rubber pants.
Some have shaved themselves in this
beautiful county convention morn. A
country town shave costs a quarter. A
quarter will buy two drinks Economy
is wealth if not health. They have shaved
with dull razors They have gashed
themselves literally in spots. They do
not mind this, so long as they root out
the stubby beard. A little blood-letting
does them good. Blood tinges their shirt
collars It has dried there. A scent of
yellow soap hangs about them. 1t was
an honest miners shave.
These are the men of the mountain east
of SOnora-dwellers mid snow, ice and
sugar pines; bear hunters, fox trappers,
read builders, quartz delivers, hill climb
ers, loggers, lumberers, sawmillers,
dwellers on the North Fork" of the
T1aolumna